Summary

Kyleigh 2022-10-20 11:21:12

Ed is an ordinary hairdresser with a dull life and few words. His wife, Dorothy, is a clothing store accountant who has an affair with the owner, Dave.

Ed is like a ghost floating in the crowd, undetected, but he can see what is hidden in the crowd.

Ed didn't want to be a barber. One day, he met an investor in a barbershop who needed $10,000 for a dry cleaning business, and Ed wanted to join the business.

Ed writes anonymous letters to blackmail Dave. At the banquet, Dave spit on Ed, and in the end Dave was forced to hand over $10,000.

Ed got his money into a dry-cleaning business. Dave found out that the blackmailer was Ed, and was killed when he beat Ed.

Ed was not found, but his wife Dorothy was arrested and jailed for murder, and she was found to have embezzled public funds. The barber shop owner Frank and Dorothy are family members. Frank mortgages the barber shop and asks a lawyer to defend Dorothy.

Dorothy commits suicide in prison, they lose their barbershop, and Flack suffers a nervous breakdown. Ed continued to live alone, often listening to his friend's daughter Bodie play the piano for escape and peace.

Ed drives Bodie to meet the music tutor, and gets into a car accident on the way back. Ed fell into a coma and woke up and was caught and jailed, charged with the murder of his dry cleaning partner.

Ed mortgaged the only house to the same lawyer and asked him to defend himself. After a few rounds, the mortgage ran out and the lawyer left. The public defender pleaded directly, and Ed was sentenced to death.

In a whitewashed room, Ed sat peacefully in the electric chair as the executioner knelt at his feet and pulled the switch.

In that place, maybe all the things Ed didn't understand would disappear like a mist, and Dorothy would listen to what he had to say.

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Extended Reading

The Man Who Wasn't There quotes

  • Ed Crane: Doris and I went to church once a week. Usually Tuesday night.

    Bingo Caller: B-9. I-29.

  • Ed Crane: It's like pulling away from the maze. While you're in the maze, you go through willy nilly, turning where you think you have to turn; banging into the dead ends. One thing after another. But you get some distance on it, and all those twists and turns, why, they're the shape of your life. It's hard to explain. But seeing it whole gives you some peace.